As I speculated, The Da Vinci Code’s second weekend at the box office didn’t hold a candle to Weekend 1. Even with a Monday holiday boost, The Code brought in $43 million on its second weekend out, which is a lot of money, but certainly not the kind of results producers were hoping for from the year’s most anticipated film. The Code held the No. 1 spot at the box office for a single week, knocked down to 2nd place last weekend by X-Men: The Last Stand, which took in a whopping $120 million in the U.S.
The Da Vinci Code is certainly not a flop. In its first 12 days in theaters, the movie made more than $140 million U.S. and more than $300 million worldwide. A total of 42 movies have made more than $500 million at the box office, led by Titanic ($1.8 billion), Lord of the Rings III ($1.1 billion), and Harry Potter ($1 billion). Although Da Vinci Code: The Book is the best-selling hard-cover fiction of all time, Code: The Movie is not headed for those heights. The movie cost $125 million to make, plus millions more to market.
When The Code was screened at the Cannes Film Festival two weeks ago, movie critics in the opening night audience reported that the movie, at 2-1/2 hours, is long, sometimes tedious, and its complicated plot is hard to follow. Those reviews didn’t stop the first wave of movie-goers, but when those people passed the word that the critics were right, attendance dropped off sharply.
Yes, I saw the movie last weekend, and the critics are right. Nothing about this movie merits all the advance buzz it generated (and was so generously provided by market-conscious churches). The story boils down to nothing more than a treasure hunt, and at some point you find yourself thinking, “Oh, no! Not another clue! Please just get to the end of the trail and be done with it!â€
Surely many of the non-church-goers who saw the film must be wondering, “So that’s what the churches were making such a fuss about? What’s the big deal?†I predict The Da Vinci Code will continue to fade fast. And it certainly will not be back on center stage at next year’s Oscars. This film will not be nominated for any major awards, certainly not for best picture, best director, or best actors — although Sir Ian McKellan’s performance as Sir Lee Teabing has received some notice.
The next time most of us will hear about The Da Vinci Code is when its prequel, Angels and Demons, makes its way to theaters two or three years from now. Sony Pictures announced last week that it has given the green light to Akiva Goldsman, who wrote the Da Vinci script, to adopt Dan Brown’s earlier book for the screen. Obviously, Sony is hoping for a series of Robert Langdon blockbusters, ala Indiana Jones. That may be wishful thinking. And I’m willing to bet Sony will not be able to persuade Ron Howard or Tom Hanks to get involved in the next project.
